596

Honesty misinterpreted.
If my offence be of such mortal kind,
That neither service past, nor present sorrows,
Nor purposed merit in futurity,
Can ransom me into his love again,
But to know so must be my benefit;
So shall I clothe me in a forced content,
And shut myself up in some other course,
To fortune's alms.

37-iii. 4.

597

Patience.
Let us teach our trial patience,
Because it is a customary cross.

7-i. 1.

Oh, you blessed ministers above,
Keep me in patience; and with ripen'd time,
Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up
In countenance !

5-v. 1.

599

Silent sorrow. Give sorrow words; the grief, that does not speak, Whispers the o'erfraught heart, and bids it break.

15-iv. 3. 600

Kindness.

Your gentleness shall force, More than your force move us to gentleness.

10-ii. 7. 601

An over-regard for the world.
You have too much respect upon the world :
They lose it, that do buy it with much care.

9-i. 1. 602

The necessity of mental cultivation, Now 'tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted; Suffer them now, and they'll o'ergrow the garden, And choke the herbs for want of husbandry.

22-üi. 1. 603

Forbearance.

Now we have shewn our power,
Let us seem humbler after it is done,
Than when it was a doing.

28-iy. 2.

? False appearance, hypocrisy.

604

Self-inspection. You talk of pride; O, that you could turn your eyes towards the napes of your necks, and make but an interior survey of your good selves! 28-ii. 1.

b

605 Studies to be pursued according to taste and pleasure.

Continue your resolve, To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy. Only, while we do admire This virtue, and this moral discipline, Let's be no stoics, nor no stocks, I pray; Or so devote to Aristotle's checks, As Ovid be an outcast quite abjured: Talk logic with acquaintance that you have, And practise rhetoric in your common talk; Music and poesy use to quicken you; The mathematics, and the metaphysics, Fall to them, as you find your stomach serves you: No profit grows, where is no pleasure ta’en;In brief, study what you most affect. 12<i. 1.

606

Action and elocution. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if

you

mouth it, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand; but use all gently: for in the very torrent, tempest, and (as I may say) whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness.

Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o'er-step not the modesty of nature.

36-iii. 2.

607

The mirror of nature. Hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature; to shew virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure.

36-iii. 2. 608

Extenuation.
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice.

37-1.2.

609

Submission to the will of God. Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine it To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com’st.

17-i. 3. 610

Ingratitude.
O, see the monstrousness of man,
When he looks out in an ungrateful shape!

27—üi. 2. 611

Sincerity.
May your

deeds

approve, That good effects may spring from words of love.

34-i. 1. 612

Wisdom without action. Of your philosophy you make no use, If you give place to accidental evils. 29-iv. 3.

613

Benediction.

The grace of heaven, Before, behind thee, and on every hand, Enwheel thee round !

37-ii. 1.

614

Nature content with little.
O, reason not the need: our basest beggars
Are in the poorest thing superfluous :
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life is cheap as beast's.

34-ii. 4.

615

Plea of adversity. If ever you have look'd on better days; If ever been, where bells have knoll’d to church; If ever sat at any good man's feast; If ever from your eye-lids wiped a tear, And know what 'tis to pity and be pitied; Let gentleness my strong enforcement be. 10–11. 7.

Observation.

616

Thou can'st tell, why one's nose stands i’ the middle of his face ?

Why, to keep his eyes on either side his nose; that what a man cannot smell out, he may spy into.

34-i. 5. 617

Reverence due to wisdom.
Those that I reverence, those I fear; the wise:
At fools I laugh, not fear them.

31-iv. 2.

620

618

The benefit of reparation.
If we do now make our atonement well,
Our peace will, like a broken limb united,
Grow stronger for the breaking.

19_iv. l. 619

The mind to be regulated.

Weed your better judgments
Of all opinion that grows rank in them. 10-ii. 7.
Discretion necessary to old age.

You are old;
Nature in you stands on the very verge
Of her confine: you should be ruled and led
By some discretion, that discerns your state
Better than you yourself.

34–ii. 4. 621

A heart fortified by patience.

Since he stands obdurate,
And that no lawful means can carry me
Out of his envy’se reach, I do oppose
My patience to his fury; and am arm’d
To suffer, with a quietness of spirit,
The very tyranny and rage of his.

9_iv. I. Self-examination.

Go to your bosom; Knock there; and ask your heart, what it doth know That 's like my brother's fault: if it confess A natural guiltiness, such as his is, Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue Against my brother.

622

623

Precipitancy to be avoided.

Reason with the fellow, Before you punish him, Lest, you should chance to whip your information, And beat the messenger, who bids beware Of what is to be dreaded.

28-iv. 6. 624 Accusation to be supported by knowledge.

If I shall be condemn'd
Upon surmises; all proofs sleeping else,
But what your jealousies awake; I tell you,
'Tis rigour, and not law.

13-iii. 2. 625 My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear; And I will stoop and humble my intents To your well-practised, wise directions. 19-v. 2.

Submission.

626

Advice to young men. Obey thy parents, keep thy word justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array. Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy pen from lenders' books.

34-iii. 4.

The same.

The same

627

Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. 36-i. 3.

628 Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. 36–1. 3. 629

The same.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel;
But do not dull thy

palmf with entertainment Of each new-hatch’d, unfledged comrade. 36-i.3.

Palm of the hand.